Posted on 06/15/2010 6:49:48 AM PDT by MissTed
Jamie Webb thought maybe she was speeding when a police cruiser pulled her and three friends over as they rode their bikes into Black Hawk from Central City.
Actually, the crime was pedaling. She was violating Black Hawk's ban on bicycling through town — the only such ban in Colorado.
"They said we had to walk through town. I think this sets a pretty bad precedent," Webb said. "There's really no reason for it."
Webb was the first cyclist ticketed under Black Hawk's new rule, which prohibits bike riding on nearly every street in town, including the only paved thoroughfare in Black Hawk.
City Manager Mike Copp said the reason for the rule, enacted in January, is safety.
The roads in Black Hawk are narrow and do not have shoulders. They teem with tour buses and delivery trucks that feed the bustling casinos. Demanding that those trucks provide 3 feet of space when passing cyclists — as required by a 2009 Colorado law — means trucks and buses must move into oncoming traffic, Copp said.
"We saw the conflicts going on with buses and with trucks, and we decided to be proactive on this," Copp said, noting that no accidents prodded the ban. "We don't want to be the city that knows we need a traffic light but waited until someone gets killed. This is what our city believes is best for its citizens, its businesses and its guests."
But Webb said she has often ridden on shoulderless canyon roads and has had no trouble with trucks.
"To say we all can't fit on the road together is ridiculous," she said. "We are all moving so slow through Black Hawk anyway, it's not like anyone is passing anyone."
After a period of issuing warnings, police this month began citing cyclists. To date, the town has issued eight $68 tickets.
Cyclists using the road to connect to the popular ride along the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway from Black Hawk to Estes Park are decrying the ban, which forces them to walk their bikes a half-mile through town. Another option is to ride over Berthoud Pass — but that excludes most of the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway.
"This is unbelievable. We are going to do as much as we can to fight this," said Rick Melick, spokesman for the 380-member Rocky Mountain Cycling Club. "Now that cyclists have almost the same rules as motorists, the idea a small town can ban bikes is ludicrous."
Since news of ticketing began trickling into the cycling community, opposition is forming. A Facebook page called "Bicyclists and Tourists Boycott Black Hawk Colorado" launched last week. The website dismountblackhawk.com is peddling shirts protesting the ban. Bicycle Colorado, a nonprofit dedicated to all things cycling in Colorado, is fomenting a grassroots push to get Black Hawk to overturn the ban.
"They are singling out one classification of vehicle," said Charlie Henderson, president of the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club. "I wonder if motorcycles will be next."
Black Hawk officials expected the uproar. And they are not going to revisit the rules, Copp said.
"Our council looks at what they think is best for its citizens, for its businesses, which in this case are casinos, and its visitors, which are patrons that come to visit the casinos," Copp said. "We have had positive feedback from citizens, casinos and our guests."
When they take 4 lane roads (2 lanes in each direction) and restripe them for 3 lanes (1 lane in each direction and a bidirectional turn lane) and stripe for bicyclists, they are increasing the traffice load (weight, wear and tear) on the remaining lane. Doesn’t sound road smart.
The road into Black Hawk from Denver is a long uphill, so bikes moving in that direction would be going slowly. Methinks the real motive here from Black Hawk is to cut down on the number of bikes on the highway, period. Personally, I think the cyclists are nuts, but they are engaged in a lawful activity according to the State of Colorado, so Black Hawk is akin to the City of Philly trying to pass its own laws in defiance of Pennsylvania gun laws.
Can't the machines just be put in the buses and delivered to the patrons rather than the patrons delivered to the Casino?
Are you serious? A city ordinance to restrict bike traffic is as bad as an attempt to exterminate an entire race? And in what way does a bike ordinance enable racial profiling? Is bicycling an activity predisposed to one race above others? I'm trying to make sense out of your post, but the sense that it makes is the kind that isn't.
The road to Black Hawk is a narrow two-lane road deep in a mountain valley. The developers had to blast out hillsides to build many of the casinos.
>> A half a mile isn’t even a long walk.
In bike shoes pushing a bike, it is.
But then you wouldn’t have all of the local tax benefits to Black Hawk, would you?
But the road back is then a good downhill where bikes can easily reach 50-60 mph.
Maybe in the Tour de France. On the roads here they go 10MPH with several in a knot that is very difficult to get around, and then when you finally get around them if you get a red light before you have a chance to get far enough away from them, they all run by you on the right, run the light and the red and form up to block you again.
They did this to themselves. Demanding the, “Three-feet law,” forced this onto Blackhawk.
My personal experience is that it is white yuppies out for exercise on their bikes. That and college kids and early graduates, some of whom own no car or serve as delivery couriers.
So, if the bicyclist can add a small electric motor to one of the wheels, is it legal again? I'm thinking a 9V battery and a tiny stepper motor taped near the front tire.
>> Do they have sidewalks or do the cyclists now walk their bikes in the street?
That’s a darn good question! If there are no sidewalks and no shoulders, walking a bike along the roadway poses MORE of a danger than riding it.
It takes far more energy overall to ride a bike a mile than it does to use a car. Bicycling isn't a "green" activity. Not even close.
Nonsense. We don’t want special rights at all. I just want to be able to ride back and forth to work. Hardly anything that I think could be considered sinister.
ban ‘em all!
Problem is, not every bicyclist stays in the shoulder.
According to the article you posted there are no shoulders.
....The roads in Black Hawk are narrow and do not have shoulders.
Sharing the road with cyclists can be a pain in the behind.
Air pressure tax? Holy inflation Batman, the tires on my road bike inflate to 160psi.
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